Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Members of the community flooded Buffalo Common Council Chambers on Tuesday to take part in a public hearing in support of giving landmark status to a handful of Catholic churches in the city.
Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski says these churches are "architectural beauties" that can't be recreated, which is part of the reason why he supports giving them a landmark status.
"By having a landmark status, it will preserve the architectural integrity of these structures when they're eventually sold to somebody, privately and are adaptively reused," Nowakowski said. "A lot of those guidelines preserve the structural integrity, the glass, the materials, and make sure that these architectural gems are contributing to our built environment and our fabric in the city of Buffalo for centuries to come."
Bernice Radle with Preservation Buffalo Niagara says that although she is happy with the overwhelming support to preserve these churches, the Diocese's restrictive covenants are making it difficult to put anything in them.
"Those restrictive covenants include no restaurants. It says no fortune telling, no astrology. It says you can't do a school. It really limits the potential redevelopment of these churches, which is tragic," Radle stated in an interview with WBEN. "If they're going to put them out on the market and put them out for sale, they should reduce the restrictions so that the so that developers can renovate them and bring them back to life so they can be back on the tax rolls within the city of Buffalo."
The five churches up for landmark status are Our Lady or Perpetual Help, St. John Kanty, St. Stanislaus, St. Rose of Lima and St. Thomas Aquinas.
